Following the announcement made by the Sámediggi (the Norwegian Sami Parliament in Kárášjohka) of a three-day gathering working towards the creation of an Indigenous arts residency in the legendary Mázejoavku: Sámi Dáiddajoavku housing and studios, OCA is delighted to support and extend the invitation to Sami and Indigenous practitioners to join a series of workshops and a panel discussion, to be held on 24–26 September 2017 in the town of Máze.

Together with local partners in Sápmi, regional and international advisors and supporters, the Sámediggi has commissioned the establishment of a foundation in the legendary Mázejoavku: Sámi Dáiddajoavku housing and studios. Furthermore, the process of bringing the house back to life will be accompanied by a series of initiatives, first of all including a workshop on Indigenous Methodologies, addressed to Sami artists and curators, facilitated by the three Sami scholars Harald Gaski, Rauna Kuokkanen, and Jelena Porsanger, with writer and d14 curator Candice Hopkins. A second Sonic workshop exploring field recordings, has been developed by Máze-based leading musician and composer Johan Sara Jr. and the experimental composer and artist Raven Chacon. A third workshop exploring Indigenous Aesthetic Language within art, craft and creativity will feature presentations and interactive discussions with artists Gunvor Guttorm, Britta Marakatt-Labba and Julie Edel Hardenberg. In addition a chapter of a cycle of interviews conducted in 2008 with artist Trygve Lund Guttormsen by Rossella Ragazzi and Terje Brantenberg, Associate Professors at Tromsø University Museum, the Arctic University of Norway, will be screened.

A panel discussion celebrating the Mázejoavku will address past, present and future aspects of its activity. The panellists will include various members of the legendary Mázejoavku: Sámi Dáiddajoavku (Sámi Artists’ Group); Ánde Somby, member of the work group to create the future Mázejoavku foundation; and Adam Szymczyk, artistic director of the documenta 14.
In parallel to the main events, documentation together with a selection of artworks will illustrate Máze’s role during the Alta Actions of the 1970s, organised by RiddoDuottarMuseat.

About the organisation and funding
Special acknowledgement to Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino) municipality and the community of Máze (Masi) for making this possible. The Indigenous Methodologies Workshop and the Sonic Workshop are funded and facilitated by OCA. The Explorative Indigenous Aesthetic Language Workshop is facilitated by the Sami Center for Contemporary Art and partly funded by Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage (MICH), York University, Canada, and the Sámediggi. Additional funding for the international participation in the programme is provided by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

About Mázejoavku: Sámi Dáiddajoavku
The artists’ house was founded in 1978 as the working headquarters of the Mázejoavku: Sámi Dáiddajoavku (Sámi Artists’ Group) by Aage Gaup (b.1943), Synnøve Persen

(b.1950), Josef Halse (b.1951), Keviselie/Hans Ragnar Mathisen (b.1945), Trygve Lund Guttormsen (1933–2012), Rannveig Persen (b.1953), Berit Marit Hætta (b.1948) and Britta Marakatt-Labba (b.1951). The house was a catalyser of political activism for the Sami people during the 1970s, and has been a great source of creative energy in the region ever since. Trygve Lund Guttormsen (featured on the front image) had a very special role in keeping the space alive until his passing away in 2012. Mázejoavku: Sámi Dáiddajoavku was the first generation of young Sami artists during the post-war period to regain pride in their Sami heritage, to express their Saminess freely, and to reclaim a renewed space within Sápmi by advocating and negotiating Sami thinking and being through the arts. The work of Mázejoavku: Sámi Dáiddajoavku is being celebrated as part of the ongoing documenta 14 with the inclusion of three of its members in the exhibition.

About the speakers

Harald Gaski is Associate Professor in Sami literature at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, and the author and editor of several books, journals and articles on Sami literature and culture. Gaski is Northern Sami, originally from Deatnu, Sápmi/Norway.

Candice Hopkins is an internationally respected writer, res

earcher as well as a curato­r for documenta 14. Hopkins is Tlingit, originally from Whitehorse, Yukon.

Rauna Kuokkanen is Research Professor of Arctic Indigenous Politics at the University of Lapland, Finland. She also holds a position of Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and Indigenous Studies Program at the University of Toronto, Canada. Kuokkanen is Northern Sami from Ohcejohka (Utsjoki), Sápmi/Finland.

Jelena Porsanger is a Sámi scholar with a doctoral degree in the history of religion and philosophy. Porsanger is Kildin Sami, originally from Lovozero, Sápmi/Russia.

Johan Sara Jr. is a composer, guitarist and yoiker born in Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino) and based in Máze. Sara Jr. is Northern Sami.

Raven Chacon is a composer, performer and installation artist based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is also a member of the Indigenous art collective Postcommodity, and he is featured in documenta 14. Chacon is Navajo.

Gunvor Guttorm is a writer, Professor of duodji (Sámi arts and crafts, traditional arts and applied arts) and Rector of the Sámi Allaskuvla/Sámi University of Applied Sciences in Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino). Guttorm is Northern Sami, originally from Kárášjohka, Sápmi/Norway.

Britta Marakatt-Labba is a visual artist and a former member of the Sámi Artists’ Group. Marakatt-Labba is from Badje Sohppar (Övre Soppero), Sápmi/Sweden.Julie Edel Hardenberg is an artist, scenographer and writer from Nuuk, Greenland. Hardenberg is Inuit.

2017: A year of indigenous art and thought
OCA’s programme for 2017—a year dedicated to indigenous art and thought—marks a commitment to urgent, contemporary indigenous issues of global importance, honouring the 100th Sami Jubilee in Tråante (Trondheim) in 2017. Structured through a series of regional and international dialogues and partnerships, the project unfolds in various forms and locations across Norway and beyond, including research, artists’ residencies, exhibitions, text commissions and a number of activities implemented through an OCA pilot office in Tromsø as well as from its premises in Oslo. This research-based initiative will culminate with the exhibition ‘Let the River Flow. The Sovereign Will and the Making of a New Worldliness’ opening in April 2018, which will examine the recent history of Sami artistic activism in and across Sápmi (in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia), and its resonance in today’s thinking internationally.